Cop Sentenced To Four Days For Bogus Arrest Of Sheepshead Bay Man

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A cop who falsely claimed that a Sheepshead Bay man tried to run him down in a car was sentenced to four days in prison – only one day more than his victim was locked up based on the officer’s bogus charges.

Officer Diego Palacios pleaded guilty at a hearing on Thursday in Brooklyn Supreme Court in exchange for a sentence of four days and his resignation from the New York City Police Department, the District Attorney’s office told Sheepshead Bites.

The three-day sentence has Palacios’s victim, East 23rd Street resident John Hockenjos, furious – and afraid for his safety.

“This individual spends four days in prison, with no probation, and he gets out of jail today or tomorrow and he’s a free man to do whatever he wants,” Hockenjos told Sheepshead Bites. “And I have to be in pure fear that there could be retribution. I should not be in this position; there should at least be probation.”

Palacios arrested Hockenjos in February 2012, saying on a police report that Hockenjos drove his car at “a high rate of speed” towards the officer in an attempt to hit him, forcing him “to jump out of the way.” Hockenjos was charged with felony reckless endangerment and spent three days behind bars before making bail.

Video of Hockenjos pulling into the driveway and being arrested.

Hockenjos could have lost his freedom for seven years. Surveillance video from Hockenjos’ home, though, cleared his name. The video shows Hockenjos slowly pulling into the driveway and stopping several feet away from the officers. Hockenjos and his wife got out of the car to talk to the police. The officer did not budge, as he had claimed.

In June, a grand jury indicted Palacios for offering a false instrument for filing, falsifying business records, making an apparently sworn false statement, perjury and making a punishable false written statement. He was also charged with official misconduct.

According to Hockenjos, four days in prison is no more than just a slap on the wrist for the man who nearly took everything from him.

“It looks like he really did nothing. It’s almost as if someone was charged with shoplifting, like picking up a pack a gum from the drug store,” Hockenjos said. “It’s like my life, all of my assets, my reputation is worth just a pack of gum. That’s what they’re saying.”

Even more galling, Hockenjos said, is that the assistant District Attorney on the case, Elizabeth Moehle, abandoned all the usual courtesies for the victim in prosecuting the case. Hockenjos said he wasn’t told about Thursday’s hearing until after the fact, and the District Attorney’s office never ran the plea deal by him.

“I started crying right away,” Hockenjos said of hearing news of the deal last week. “I’m afraid now. What’s going to happen to me?”

Though not required by law, the District Attorney’s office said that as a matter of policy, their office seeks the victim’s approval for all plea deals.

A spokesperson for District Attorney Charles Hynes told Sheepshead Bites that Hockenjos did give the thumbs up to the deal.

“We never do a plea unless the victim agrees to it. So that actually happened,” said Hynes spokesperson Sandy Silverstein.

Hockenjos said the only previous plea agreements discussed were in the early stages, when he was told the officer was likely to face three years.

“They said it would be three years, I thought it should be five. We had different opinions, but at least the order of magnitude is correct. To give him four days – one day more than I spent in prison – for the things he did to me is out of this world. It’s unreasonable,” said Hockenjos.

Hockenjos and his wife, Irena, say they live in fear that Palacios and his former colleagues at the 61st Precinct will seek retribution. Since the initial arrest, they’ve been afraid to call officers to report suspicious activity, or to protect them in an ongoing property dispute with a neighbor, who they claim has physically attacked them in the past.

“Now police officers can just shoot us to death and they won’t even face jail time, they’ll just resign from the police department,” Irena said. “This is very scary. I’m afraid to stay in the house; I’m afraid to step out.”

On the occasions that they have called 911, police have arrived only to shout at Irena Hockenjos, she said, and their complaints to the Internal Affairs Bureau have gone unanswered. They have also confronted the precinct’s former commanding officer, to no avail, they said.

“The 61st Precinct officers, they know what happened, and they know they can do whatever they want,” said John Hockenjos.

The NYPD’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This post will be updated if a comment is received.

Correction (5:43 p.m.): The original version of this story spelled the officer’s name incorrectly. It has since been amended. We regret any confusion this may have caused.

Isn’t five years the punishment for perjury? Four days is some plea deal. Would he have gotten such a good deal if her were not a police officer?

Local Broker

One rule for us and another for them.

http://www.facebook.com/itskovskiyp Pasha Itskovskiy

This is beyond fucked up. Hopefully the guy will get him in the civil court

HpPavilion22

The NYPD will make sure that the Judge does not allow the jury to see the video in Cival Court and Officer Deigo and the NYPD will not be required to pay one penny to the poor sucker that they framed

ShadowLock

First off…. Welcome to 2 months ago. Second, Depending on the Type of Lawyer anything is possible……

Death Penalty

Death penalty. What does this teach other cops who do the same and didnt get caught?

genee

ny does not have a death penalty pal

Anonymous

So re-instate it.

Death Penalty

Will he get to keep taxpayers retirement?

BrooklynBus

Don’t see how if he resigned, unless he retired.

winson

nonsense with the NYPD

Norespectfor50

61st precinct is filled with the biggest pile of shit slingers in the country. Chris Dorner thought he had it bad working for the lapd? I can only imagine how much worse his actions would have been had he worked for the nypd and saw wat goes on in this city. The lapd are Boy Scouts compared to nypd..courtesy,professionalism,respect my ass. I too am a victim of a false arrest and same as this story the arresting officer blatantly lied all the way through the report. Example, Lapd had Rodney king and the rampart scandal nypd shoots a guy 40 times for holding his wallet (if he was even holding anything and wasn’t fabricated) and lets not forget the infamous plunger incident. I have personally seen many times the nypd blatantly break the law and they love the use of excessive force even when not necessarily needed. If you ever end up in central bookings they tell you straight up ur paperwork will be “lost” and u will be processed all over again

MyBrooklyn

Lets not forget this poor guy was facing 7 years in prison and finanacial burden upon in his family….btw Mr.Hockenjos no need to fear these rats….you will be ok….i still have more fate in everyday people then in PIGS

HpPavilion22

same here i am a victim of false arrest.. i simply had an empty marijuana pipe with some camping gear and the police asked me if anyone in my family was a police officer once i said no,, they handcuffed me and framed me for possesion of a 7th degree naroctic which is crack cocaine.. The DA gave me a choice either plead guilty and play along with the dirty police officers lies or (there were 4 of them) or wait in rikers island for 10 – 14 months for a trial date. Bloomberg and kelly have to know that the NYPD is corrupt they simply choose not to punish them and allow them to be corrupt.

HpPavilion22

its true,, they stopped me(driving) for no reason except being in a black neighborhood,, found an empty pot pipe in my camping gear and framed me for possesion of crack cocaine ,, when i have never even seen crack cocaine in my life

ShadowLock

Serves you right for letting them check inside your car….. Usually they would need a Warrent to do that….. Your lucky they didn’t Drop a bag of cocaine inside your camping gear then you’d be Fucked……

HpPavilion22

oh I learned the hard way never ever trust a nypd officers mouth if it moves

genee

spending 3 days in central booking is not prison.

ChrisDornerNYPD

That’ll teach those cops never to set up an innocent man again!
When does the promotion to Detective for Palacios come through – before or after the sentence?

Hockenjos had better start looking into Costa Rica for an early retirement. He has pissed off the largest gang in the country who have rap sheets that include murder, extortion, rape, pimping under-age girls, smuggling heavy weapons, conducting hits and who are known to own the courts and have licenses to kill.

When seconds count the highly trained, heavily armed gang member is having coffee at the drive through – but in Hockenjos case..

MyBrooklyn

You areabsolutely right….these pigs issue everyday BS tickets to people in order to inflict financial hardship and worse case scenario they had and will forge documents in order to take away your freedom but judges with side with these crooks…why this bastard was not in front of the grand jury…I guarantee you if 12 jurors were deciding his fate he would be pooping in his pants….thats why ChrisDorner had it enough with it and public has his full support against bunch of arrogant self serving bastards

ChrisDornerNYPD

Put all of your trust in the police and the courts of New York City BWAHAHAHA.

Hockenjos wil sure have a lot of parking tickets, speeding tickets (whether or not he ever drives again). Surely, his home will be robbed repeatedly, and ultimately he will end up just another unsolved murder victim – Another lesson for all the do-gooders filming our heroic police doing their difficult jobs of drinking coffee and framing innocent men.

NYPD – TO PROTECT AND SERVE OURSELVES- If you don’t like it call the cops…

http://www.brucebrodinsky.com Bruce B

This is just plain disgraceful. No other way to put it. Brooklynbus makes an excellent point, if perjury is 5 years, this is a similar and at least as bad offense. Investigate that judge.

This is bad enough for us civilians, but it’s even bad for the good cops. Imagine a good 61st cop hauls a guy in for an offense. Let’s assume the guy really is guilty. The guy just has to yell “false arrest, look at Hockenjos case”. Criminal gets off, we’re at risk.

It’s screwed up all around. The judge is hurting good cops, good civilians. As usual, the criminal is the one that benefits.

cabbie

kicked off the force PLUS he’s gotta live with that ugly mug for the rest of his miserable life!

ChrisDORNER4EVA

WHERE IS OBAMA? THE DOJ? FBI? NBC? CBS? ABC? CNN?

Too bad Hockenjos was not of a darker skin tone, then he would have the DOJ, FBI, Al Sharpton, Reverend Jesse, Obama and the whole country SCREAMING INJUSTICE. No doubt the city would be in flames – AND DESERVEDLY SO.

Instead he has a price on his head by the biggest cartel in the world and not a god damned peep out of anyone. Let this be a lesson to all of the law and order jerks who go around praising the cops. Hockenjos is the face of the thousands who have been set up by thug cops, and railroaded – They have lost their jobs, homes, been financially ruined, disgraced, lost their freedom and have even been murdered by these bastards for fun and the tormenters smile for the judges, get a free pass, promotion and collect their bloated pension along with their payoffs. AND THIS ALL GOES BACK TO BLOOMBERG AND HIS CULTURE OF CORRUPTION AND OPPRESSION.

We need our Undocumented Rifles just to protect ourselves from those who are protecting and serving us.

GOD BLESS CHRISTOPHER DORMER – I WOULD HAVE PAID FOR A FIRST CLASS AIR TICKET FOR HIM TO HAVE COME TO BROOKLYN AND Dispense justice to Machine Gun Kelly’s Heroes.

HpPavilion22

Bloomberg could never have made 24 billion dollars without help from corrupt police,, he needs to take care of them so they take of him.

themoreyouknow

27 Billion.

HpPavilion22

Forbes magazine published an article on Bloomberg’s wealth ,, when he first came to NYC from Boston and ran for Mayor his Net worth was 900,000 every year his business have gone up and up with city contracts and is now worth 27 billion.. Amazing..

If someone was held for two days against their will by a private citizen who believed that individual guilty of a crime it would be called kidnapping, one of the most serious of crimes. When a police officer is responsible for the same circumstances the legal definition for the crime has much the same understanding of gravity and yet……

M. Smart

Seriously,If something untoward happens to Hockenjos, dont you suppose they will question the police ?

StalinistNY

Who exactly will question “the” police??

TO PROTECT AND SERVE OURSELVES – DON’T LIKE IT? CALL THE COPS

Igor B

On that video, there were about six to eight cops on the scene. What was the personal role of each of them during the arrest of that man? How did they explained the arrest on their official book reports? If that arrest seems legitimate to all of these cops, that means all of them were liable for the breach of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the US Constitution, for committing the unlawful arrest, and depriving the freedom of the innocent citizen. Shame on all of those cops who were involved in that illegal and unlawful action.

HeroicNYPDRailroaders

Yeah, that “shame” will really prevent them from doing it again and far worse as they collect their paychecks and “earn” promotions.

When will the rest of your come to see the police for what they are: gun toting thugs who rob, rape and murder with impunity? Every NYPD cop wants to take your freedom, your dignity, your wealth and your freedom if given half a chance. They are worse than the so called criminals they are supposed to apprehend. With incontrovertible evidence such as this and the thousands of other cases one must wonder just how many of those being arrested are being done wrongfully with abject malice so that another corrupt NYPD cop can get his promotion and out in 20?

Why would anyone else in that precinct who took part in the railroading of Hockenjos face any type of reprimand, when the lead conspirator who lied under oath barely received a disapproval of his actions by the equally corrupt Brooklyn DIstrict Attorney?

HpPavilion22

they are all still making 150 grand a year to terrorize innocent hard working people

Mico Jones

While I agree that the sentence was a bit light, some of the comments here are way over the top.

MyBrooklyn

Is it over the top that some innocent person would be locked up for 7 years
over a piece of shit like Pig’s word?
You tell me….Is it ok to put his family under financial burden and
mental stress…..? Is it ok for a person to be label guilty and nobody believes
you except your family members who also have no say in the court of law. You tell
me …is it OK? I pray and hope you don’t have
to deal with this kind of situation….Public either in fear of these thugs or
just like me hates their existence…

MicoJones

I never said any of that so why don’t you re-read what i wrote. You hate their existence until you need them…oh and because you’re a low life.

MyBrooklyn

no i dont need them….i dont rely on them…you are coward

MicoJones

Unlike you, I can acknowledge that there are a few bad apples within the ranks of the NYPD and any other police force for that matter. That being said, I would never paint an entire group of people with such a broad brush as yours. Calling cops pigs and thugs while praising the acts of a cop killer speaks volumes of your character. You sir are the REAL coward!

syphiliticbrainofbloomberg

Real Men do not need to call crooks and thugs ie NYPD cops, you are the COWARD.

As for there only being “a few bad apples,” with the number of bad apples coming out of the 61 and from the whole of Machine Gun Kelly and Queen Bloomberg’s “fifth largest army” – if this were an orchard, a responsible farmer would cut down the whole orchard for kindling and build condos.

The NY Post in reporting this story finally and that that Hero Palacios only served one day in jail for perjury, wrongful arrest – With a Brooklyn DA this corrupt, it is sheer amazement that Palacios was even sentenced to that, surely he earned a promotion to detective with an eye on making captain in the 61.

MicoJones

You and you’re alter ego “mybrooklyn” need counseling.

pigs above the law

you are poor excuse for a free human being…cop boot licking lover

HpPavilion22

the Brooklyn DA is corrupt when the NYPD frame people for possesion of crack, the DA gives them a choice either plead guilty or spend 2 years in rikers island waiting for a trial date

HpPavilion22

there were at least 20 other police officers in that video who covered up for Mr Palicios by not reporting his crime, and allowing him to frame MR Hockenjos

HpPavilion22

if u call them for help they rape you and take naps on your couch

ShadowLock

WHAT THE FUCK…………… 4Days? The man he was going to put away was going to get 7 years……. Corruption at it’s best.

Local Broker

Is anyone looking into every ticket, summons or arrest this guy has made? How many times has he lied and ruined someones life? What about all the cops that were there that evening that witnessed what really happened and either lied or kept their mouth shut? Where are the local pols on this situation? These are questions everyone should be asking.

syphiliticbrainbloomberg

The local politicians? You mean like Carl Kruger and the rest of his cartel? sThieves and Liars know not to speak ill of other thieves and liars. The Brooklyn DA already spoke on this…. “bad… don’t do it again now go play..”

The NYPD only exist as revenue generating instruments for the city and themselves, why would a city appointed judge be looking into any of the tickets this liar wrote?

Any representative of the City is not here to help you. Ask any businessman or homeowner who lives in fear of their constant extortion. They help themselves, “justice” is what lines Bloomberg’s pockets, not protect his peasants.

MyBrooklyn

You are absolutely right…cops nowadays in legalized extortion business. To harass people with tickets in order to inflict financial burden…worse case scenario they will forge documents to take away your freedom just because they can…its very simple, unless you are very naive or really an ass licker.

4 days ha.. ridululas,, that innocent man would have spent 7 years in jail for his lies,, I gurantee Diego Palicios has sent hundreds of totally innocent people to jail..

Guest

This is what Bloomberg will forever be known for,, corruption

HpPavilion22

why do Bloomberg and Kelly protect dirty cops like this?

HpPavilion22

How can Bloomberg still claim that the NYPD can police themselves when stuff like this happens?

HpPavilion22

how does Bloomberg keep a straight face when he claims the NYPD does not need outside monitors to watch the Police,, when they can be caught on video framing people for attempted murder and spend one day in jail , as thier punishment….